A new photo book exploring post-Katrina lives in New Orleans' Ninth Ward

Based on photos and interviews captured between 2006 and early 2009, Roots Run Deep Here: A Return to New Orleans' Ninth Ward After Katrina is a snapshot of lives still being rebuilt 3 1/2 years after the storm.

As a photojournalist living in Philadelphia, I was drawn in by all-encompassing drama of Katrina's aftermath. I made an initial visit to New Orleans in 2006, just a few months after the storm, and then returned with my camera and voice recorder several times between late 2008 and early 2009. The timing seemed appropriate to observe and chronicle the still very early stages of recovery, as many residents I met in 2006 had returned home just prior to that first visit, or were expecting to in the coming months. Though each of their stories was markedly different, a powerful common theme emerged: home.

Roots Run Deep Here is a self-published book that I hope gives voice to those Ninth Ward residents with the tenacity to rebuild, and inspires those who are moved by their stories as I have been.